The experience of the research event in psychology
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Date
1997
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Abstract
This investigation explores and describes the experiences of psychology students who have recently completed their honours research projects. This is apparently the first study to explicate this research event by approaching it from an existential-pbenomenological viewpoint and by making use of the phenomenological method of research.
The guiding idea behind the investigation is that we need to train our students to become able and enthusiastic researchers. In order to accomplish this task we instruct them about research and/or allow them to conduct a relatively independent research project at honours level. In order to enhance their training, explicit accounts of students' research experiences can be useful sources of information, to provide insight into and to alert students to the challenges facing them when they become involved in this research event.
Honours students were asked to write the story of their research experiences in as much detail as possible, and to focus on their own subjective experiences of the complete event. Seven students participated in the investigation. The individual protocols were divided into natural meaning units and the natural meaning units were collapsed into themes. A brief summary of each theme was compiled. These themes were then used to formulate a general structure which reflects the collective experience of the students. The general structure as a whole, and the themes in the structure in particular, were validated by making use of subjective methods and statistical analysis.
Four general themes were identified as representative of the shared experiences of the individual respondents. The four themes were: time constraints, problem-solving, personal growth, and capacity for understanding.
The following important observations were made regarding these themes:
The themes represent the general essence of students* experience of the research event during their honours year of study.
The themes that emerged from the data reflect some of the problems identified by authors and instructors in the field of research methodology.
This investigation can be seen as a starting point for further research on the research experiences of students. Insights generated by the study provide some useful guidelines for academics involved in the training and teaching of research methodology students.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1997.
Keywords
Psychology--Research